Prayer: Eternal and loving God, we are so very grateful that your word continues to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path and we praise you today for your presence in this place. We ask that you pour out your spirit upon us, and that in this hour the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, be pleasing and acceptable to you, O God, our rock, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.

If I were to summarize today’s lesson from Matthew in a few words, I would say this: God’s word, all of the lessons taught in scripture, all that we discern, all that we experience, along with the ministry of Jesus are the seeds for our spirit. We are the soil into which these seeds are sown. I think Jesus thought about the relationship between seeds, soil, and ultimately our salvation as he taught the crowds that day and as he teaches us today.

We meet him today when he is trying to claim some quiet time. He has left the crowded house where he had been. He wants to be alone because he needs space to pray and to think. A quick reading of the previous two chapters in Matthew help us understand what led Jesus to go out and stare at the sea. They tell the story of the beginning of his ministry, including his rejection by the people to whom he brought the offer of God’s salvation. We’ve been there. Do you remember that time you were so excited about that thing that happened to you and you could not wait to share it, and then when you did, nobody cared, or it just wasn’t what they wanted to hear? Jesus came with the message about the realm of God. In God’s eternal world he said, there is justice, there is compassion, there is life, and peace, joy and salvation. None of it depends only on the written law, it all depends on our willingness to write God’s law of love in our hearts and then to give our heart, mind, strength, and soul to God through Jesus Christ. Then God’s eternal world can be seen in our earthly world has we practice and show justice, compassion, peace, joy, and live with the salvation offered to us now. That is what Jesus said. Certainly some people followed him. Many did not. Instead they said, “why do you heal on the Sabbath, why don’t your disciples act like John the Baptist’s disciples? Why don’t you guys fast, why do you hang around with unsavory people? We heard about you Jesus. Just last week we heard that you and your followers party too much. There is all that eating, all that drinking, all that joy and laughter, all that compassion, all with the wrong kinds of people. That is no way for religious people to act!

No wonder Jesus wants some time by himself, thinking about his ministry. He goes out, the crowd follows. He goes out and sits in a boat and the people continue to gather now and stand on the shore - they are looking and waiting. Finally, Jesus tells them a story about a farmer, some seeds, and some soil.

Actually, he told them a parable, the first in a series of parables Matthew records. The Greek word for parable means to set side by side. Jesus knows that for seed to grow they need good, rich soil. We know it too. That explains the 25, 40 pound bags of topsoil sitting in my driveway, and before too long it will be in some new and existing flower beds. I know that in order for the flower beds that surround the house to look their best, good rich topsoil will need to be added to the soil that is already there.

Jesus puts his knowledge about the need for good soil along side his knowledge that the good news of God’s redemptive and gracious love for us is prepared for us. All we have to do is receive it. It is like seeds spread into soil. The extent to which we receive those seeds and provide a home where they can grow down deep and grow up strong and healthy witnesses to the hope we have in Christ, depends on the kind of soil we are.

How did Jesus think of this parable? As far as we know Jesus was a carpenter and an itinerant rabbi; he had no fixed address. He certainly did not stay anywhere long enough to sow seeds, nurture them to maturity, and then harvest them. Some think that as Jesus sat in the boat looking at the crowd looking at him, he could see what they could not. It might be that he could see up on the hillside a farmer busy sowing seeds. Jesus sees the people looking at him, some eager and accepting, others anxious and skeptical, some even hostile. Jesus thought of the rejections he had faced and was able to put his experience alongside the work the farmer was doing. He watched the farmer walking along a dirt path broadcasting his seeds, onto the rows on either side of him, seeding the ground before he plows the field.

Jesus describes what happened to the seeds. Some never did make it to the soil. Instead they fell on the dirt path and became bird food. Other seeds fell in rocky soil, and while the seed became a plant, it wasn’t deep enough and it really offered no protection from the sun. In the heat of the day, the plant withered away.

A few were planted among thorns. They began to grow, but as they did, they were pricked and choked by the sharpness of their environment. They started out well, but could find no room to grow.

Then there are the seeds that found their way to good nutrient rich soil and they grew. A normal harvest would yield ten-fold. A fifteen-fold harvest would be extraordinary. A yield of 100, 60, and 30 which Jesus describes is incredible, even miraculous.

Think of the soil Jesus describes as a way of speaking about the condition of your heart and soul. Then consider how it is that the word of God can take root in you. How is your soil content today? What kind of soil will we provide for the seeds of God’s word that is being sown in us?

If our soil is really no soil at all, but a beaten down dirt path, then seeds may land on it, but they will not grow. The seed that is planted in us will have no room to grow because we will be too easily deceived, too easily distracted, and too easily disappointed and disheartened. And when others come to us, we will have no joy to share.

Maybe we are rocky ground. Church was great that day. We were so excited when we came forward and gave ourselves to Christ and to the church. But when the opportunity for Bible study came, we were too busy to attend. When we had a chance to help with a service project, we were too busy then too. We never got around to joining a small group. Little by little, our excitement began to wane. Then when hard times came, we found that we had few tools to help us cope, and we found ourselves in a rocky place and far away from the church. When our faith is rocky, we will have little ability to help ourselves or others cope or recover from the difficult times in our lives.

Could our soil be a bit thorny? We want to do the right thing. But life and all of its temptations do get in the way. We get overwhelmed by the world, and come to believe that we have no need of God, and that God has no desires for us. We forget that God wants nothing more than our love and trust. But as is true with all humans, we mess up sometime. That’s when Satan, the ultimate Tempter, begins to try to keep us from God. So we say of ourselves, “I don’t deserve God’s love,” or “as soon as I straighten out my life, I will come back to church,” When I have enough money, when I get the right clothes, when my children are older, when I don’t need to sleep in on Sunday morning”, and on and on and on it goes, until we find ourselves choked off and cut off from any relationship with God. And we will find ourselves with no ability to help ourselves or others find a life changing relationship with God. How we long for good rich soil.

Or we could surround ourselves with the rich topsoil of a spiritual community - that is, we can find and become active in this congregation. How do we do that? Many of you know the four expectations for church members as well as I do. We can 1) declare publicly our intention to be a member of this church by coming forward during the hymn of discipleship; 2) attend church services regularly; 3) support the church financially, and 4) participate in a small group.

How is your soil today? I pray for the time we can all say that our soil is healthy and able to bear the fruit of faithfulness and love that has been planted in us? A miraculous harvest is waiting for us. Miracles can happen. I told you before that I share the expectation of one of our members that we can make this corner jump with the excitement and energy of our ministry here. And I was further encouraged by another of our members who said the other day, that “God is in the house and is ready to rock and roll.” We know that all soil, in order to be productive needs water, minerals, and lots of attention. In order for us to jump, in order for God to find a place here to do through us all that God desires us to do, we have to first commit ourselves to becoming good soil ready to produce far more than we can think or imagine right now.

The signs of health are already here. Three quick stories make the point. We had over 90 people involved as students and teachers and helpers in our Vacation Bible School this past week. It was a great week and all who helped deserve our thanks. Among the students were some children from this immediate neighborhood, some come to this church, some do not. Last Wednesday about six of them showed up at 2:30 in the afternoon, and when I told them they were almost four hours early, for Vacation Bible School, they asked to stay anyway, and I let them. They wanted to be here because they have a sense that this is a place where they can take root and grow, and we are providing the soil for them. The third story is this, we had more teenagers here for Vacation Bible School than we anticipated, so we had to figure out what to do with them. They provided the leadership for our closing worship, and they have also asked if whether they can have Bible study group just for them. We of course said, yes. And so they will. We are providing good soil for the next generation of this congregation’s leaders.

We can with joy offer the one who casts the seeds the promise of ourselves, knowing that God through Jesus Christ will be with us all along the journey. Thanks be to God. Amen.